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February 25, 2007

A Question... STOL from Concrete -vs- Water

A little "Cross Decking" here this morning.

Over at Neptunus Lex's "Other Project" The Flight Deck, one of his brood Skippy-san posted an interesting question based on an observation he made while playing golf across the pond at Atsugi Base. The JMSDF are one of the few countries' military still utilizing ocean going sea planes and Skippy-san watched with some fascination the incredible STOL capabilities of the US-1 from a concrete runway. And...

Well why don't we turn it over to Skippy-san himself. Please read below and reply accordingly. Fair warning, snarky commentors be prepared... Skippy-san is not shy with the witty rebut!

A trivia question

While playing golf yesterday, I watched a US-1 taxi up to the hold
short then take the runway lining up right along side the seven board
(7000 foot marker). They are always a sight to see because of the way
they lumber down the taxi way, plus their engines make a very unique
sound-its very different from any of the other aircraft at Atsugi-so
you know one is flying without even looking up. Here is a picture of
one:

Anyway, as I said , the aircraft was lined up at the 7 board. It did
its run up to full power, then off the brakes and down the runway she
goes. Well prior to the 5 board I was shocked to see the aircraft just
jump into the air. It did not seem to rotate, it was just that the
landing gear stopped touching the runway. By my estimate the aircraft
had taken less than 1800 feet to get airborne. That’s impressive when
you consider how big the airplane is. ( The picture does not show the
size very well). Suprised me, I figured it would go farther before
lifting off.

So here is the question for the experts out there- is there a
difference in takeoff distance between a land based takeoff and a
seabased takeoff.? If the US-1 had been in the water-same takeoff
distance or not? More of the aircraft would be in contact with the
water, which seems to me to increase drag, however at the same time,
its water! Not having ever flown in a seaplane, I know nothing about
it. Nonetheless as I walked up to the tee box, so I could shank my ball
into the sand trap, I wondered about that.